Saturday, November 5, 2016

The following telegram, just received from Commissioner
Crawford: “I am authorized to say that this Government will not undertake to
supply Sumter without notice to you. My opinion is that the President has not
the courage to execute the order agreed upon in Cabinet for the evacuation of
the fort, but that he intends to shift the responsibility upon Major Anderson by
suffering him to be starved out. Would it not be well to aid in this by cutting
off all supplies?”

“crawford.”

Batteries here ready to open Wednesday or Thursday. What
instructions?

G. P. Beauregard.

SOURCES: Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the
Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861, p. 391